Saturday, November 9, 2013

Completely Charmed Kinda Life

Third Eye Blind: a band that can evoke multiple emotions and memories with a single eloquently constructed song. Their music makes me nostalgic, especially during the fall season. I can’t recall one of their songs not containing at least one indelible line. Blinded, Motorcycle Drive by, and Crystal Baller were the anthems of my high school career; Dao of St. Paul, The Background and Wounded remind me of a difficult time in college many years ago; and Semi-Charmed Life and Never Let You Go, among others, have been there for the fun times.

Stephan Jenkins

This year, for their 20th anniversary, they are back on the road. Thanks to a social media addiction, I found out that pre-sale tickets were available and that the code was out there for all to see. Turns out, my roomie is equally as addicted to their moving music and we immediately got tickets for their NYC show. I have always wanted to meet them and see what goes on behind the scenes of a group with just the right amount of fame and a cult-like following. When I told her that 3eb followed me back on Twitter she informed me that this gave me the ability to send a direct message. Not expecting to hear a thing, I messaged my long-time band of choice asking if it would be possible to meet them. I received a simple, “This is” response. When I inquired further, they told me to remind them and they would put me down for passes at the ticket booth. Upon thanking them, they told me to thank my parents for making me pretty. Gotta love boy bands!

After briefly freezing our asses off outside of Irving Plaza, we made our way inside for a night of singing along at the top of our lungs. 3eb employee extraordinaire, The Duchess instructed us to go straight to the merch table to pick up our wristbands for the after show festivities. Then we lost ourselves in the sold out crowd. The opener, Show Girls was decent and off the stage within 30 minutes. 3eb opened the show with Losing a Whole Year and went on to play hits including Bonfire, Semi-Charmed Life, I Want You and Slow Motion in addition to several new songs. Stephen Jenkins brought up the late Lou Reed. I grew up listening to The Velvet Underground and it was cool to hear him share how inspired he was by Reed, stating that he learned from him that you can sing about things you can never even talk about.

The aftermath.

After the show, we went upstairs to meet the guys. I got a quick picture with Stephen and then Brad chatted with us for a bit. He told me that they want to try to start recording their next, and word on the street, final album in January. I also befriended Alex, a fellow Ohioan and newer addition to the band. He told us if we ever want to see mass amounts of tour buses, the ideal place for this is the Secaucus Walmart parking lot at night. Pretty funny. The night was definitely more William and less Penny Lane though if you catch my drift.